Lansdown Pottery

Who are Lansdown Pottery?

John West

" The first memory that I have of pottery was at a time when the scheduling of programmes on the television was looser than today. There were often several minutes between one programme and another during which short films, called the Interlude, were shown. One of these films was of the potter at the wheel with his lump of clay. This fascinated me."
Born in Southampton in 1950, John moved to Gloucestershire in 1981. There he took on a pottery and lived in a house community for young adults with Learning Difficulties, at William Morris House. Formerly he was a musician and involved in art and crafts.

John works mainly in stoneware, firing his work in a gas kiln. His work is almost entirely functional with an emphasis towards being used in the home. "I feel that my work is the synthesis of many influences; Oriental, European and African. I find myself as enthusiastic about a piece of early English slipware as I do a piece of modern salt glazed stoneware. What is important is the way in which the making, decoration and firing, combine in order to create an harmonious whole."

Penny West

The first thing Penny did when walking in to visit John in his pottery was to pick up a pot to admire it, not realising that it was a delicate piece of unfired work. To her great embarrassment it disintegrated into hundreds of pieces on the floor. She has long since been forgiven and has transferred her many years of experience of teaching and training in crafts, working particularly with adolescents with learning difficulties to the pottery, where as well as making her own work, much of her time is spent teaching the varied groups of people who spend their afternoons in the pottery.

Dawn Almasi

temp photo.jpg "I am fascinated with natural forms which in turn inspire my work as a potter. Whether they are bones or plants, fossils or shells. I'm drawn to the work of Andy Goldsworthy, Kate Malone and the architectural wonders of Gaudi. The elements that they all possess are their meticulous attention to detail. My work has in the past also carried this element. I mainly use hand building techniques but I am not unfamiliar with throwing. After university I held two positions as Artist-in-Residence which allowed me the freedom and time to experiment with my work. I enjoyed encouraging pupils to be open minded about what they saw and realise the endless stream of ideas that can flow from a single source. Following this I got involved in Camphill and my work took on a different direction. I became inspired with working alongside adults with special needs to create pieces of craft together. This ranged from individuals making a product from start to finish or braking up an project for a team of individuals to work together to produce it. Knowing that these adults felt valued and took pride in their work gave me a lot of satisfaction. Now I teach students from the William Morris community in Stonehouse basic pottery skills every afternoon at Lansdown Pottery. I thoroughly enjoy this age group and the transformation a craft can have on an individual. I am also responsible for glazing the production ware that is produced at Lansdown Pottery. Needless to say my own work is therefore on a back burner having also recently become a mother. But it's never far from my thoughts and dreams for the future."